Wednesday, January 11, 2012

gnocchi with peas, pancetta and pecorino



I remember my first time stepping foot in the grocery store across the street from my Rome apartment; from my first sight of the crusty breads, cubed pancetta, heaping piles of parmesan and fresh pasta, I was in love. Since I quickly got sick of eating rigatoni and bucatini with red sauce every night, I started incorporating gnocchi into my meals and on a whim, came up with this dish. A lot of my cooking is guesswork and estimation, so I just sort of eyeball the ratio of peas to pancetta to gnocchi. It's an easy weeknight meal that could be served on a chilly January night or a sweltering Thursday in the summer.

Gnocchi with Peas, Pancetta and Pecorinio

1 package of gnocchi (you could make your own, but who the hell has time for that?)
pancetta or thick cut bacon, cubed
frozen peas
grated pecorino cheese
olive oil
salt + pepper

Bring a pot of salted water to boil. As the water heats, add olive oil to a skillet and cook the cubed pancetta. Remove pancetta from pan with a slotted spoon and reserve about 2 tbsp of the pancetta fat. Once water is boiling, add gnocchi to the pot and watch carefully: it only takes about two minutes for the gnocchi to fully cook. Place frozen peas in collander. Once gnocchi are cooked, pour the gnocchi and boiling water into the collander over the frozen peas (this will thaw them). Shake all of the water from the gnocchi and peas and add the mixture to the same skillet used to cook the pancetta. I let the gnocch sit a bit in the pan so that the outsides get a little brown and crunchy, but you can leave them in as long as you'd like. Once browned to your liking, turn off the stove top and add pancetta to the skillet. Drizzle with olive oil and generously sprinkle pecorino cheese, pepper and a pinch of salt. Toss, plate, and enjoy!

4 comments:

  1. Came across this on pinterest today and I can't wait to try it for dinner tonight with the kids I nanny!!

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    1. Wow, that's awesome that it's on Pinterest! I hope you and the kids enjoyed it!

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